Lead - The Stratton ABC Foundation Childrens Home Chiang Mai

February 2012
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Emilie Is Another Instant Hit

Feb 052012

We seem to be getting a good run with Volunteers as we have now been joined by Emilie Gumy, a lovely lady who has been teaching in Korea and was directed to us by a previous volunteer Eunjey.

Arriving yesterday we picked her up from Sarapee on the way home from collecting our four Mattayom level students who have been away on a 3 day Scout camp with their school.

That was lunch time and it didn’t take long for Emily to pitch in, helping the girls with the post-lunch clear up.

And she appeared to be an instant hit with the kids after that joining them in their Saturday afternoon free time and instigating some fun and games herself.

She also helped the May 2 and Jor with their new “spring” mattresses purchased yesterday.

We bought 3 with one going to Tai. We will be replacing more in the near future but are still looking for a kind hearted sponsor to cover the costs.

Emilie will be with us until next Saturday so I’m sure there will be much more fun in-store.

Another Special Sunday

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Jan 292012

Yet more thanks to Pui for helping to put us in touch with our new friend and supporter Jurgen,

Today we had a very welcome visit from Pui, her family and Jurgen and his friend Ohs. Jurgen has expressed an interest in helping our Foundation, liking our core philosophies and our work so far.

Our visitors came with yet another great lunch for the kids, with green curry, chicken, noodles and much more. Jurgen and Ohs also presented us with a huge supply of toothpaste and toothbrushes for the children, donated by a dentist friend of theirs in Switzerland. Sorry I failed to get your name, but we all say a big thanks for that.

After a fantastic lunch Jurgen offered a return visit to Childrens World at the Night Safari. And so there followed a wonderful afternoon for the kids and a relaxing time for the adults with chance to discuss several ideas in connection with onward funding and development.

This includes a kind offer to help design and produce drawings for our ” permanent facility”.

We would like to thank Jurgen, Ohs, Pui and all her family for their generous support and I look forward to ongoing discussions in the near future.

Surprise Re-union as Yet More New Friends Arrive

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Jan 292012

On Thursday I received a phone call from acquaintances of our friend Pui, saying that they would like to come and donate food for the children this weekend.

We made the arrangement for Saturday lunchtime with me happy that yet more people are stepping forward to help but with no clue as to who these new people were.

At 11.30am Saturday morning I got a very nice surprise as we were treated to a visit from Bpaa Ohm and her generous group of friends.

Prior to starting the Foundation, I had run a business in the centre of Chiang Mai for 2 years and for the majority of that time Bpaa Ohm was my next door neighbour, with her own business. We got on famously then and I have often wondered how she was and remember those times fondly.

She was equally surprised, having no idea that I was running this Foundation. Our old landlords secretary, who worked above Bpaa Ohms shop was also in the group.

So it was a particularly happy welcome to this lovely group of Thai citizens, plus one “Farang” , Ian, who came and donated not only a fantastic lunch of Hang Lay and other traditional Thai food, but also bedsheets, kanom, kitchen supplies, such as cooking oil and sauces , and a generous cash donation of 4000 baht.

We would like to thank them all very much and hope it won’t be too long before we see them again.

Fund Raisers Needed…Every Little Helps

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Jan 252012

It was some time ago when we launched our Gamma Team idea.

Sadly, although we have had a couple of ex-volunteers doing what they can we still only have 2 official Gamma Teams; our first Faa gamma, headed by good friend Heather Mackay in Queensland , Australia; and Yai Gamma which is basically my Mum and my sister. Both these teams are doing their best to hold varying fund raisers most months and I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those involved for all their hard work and support.

Our present basic monthly running costs are around 1000 pounds sterling. Thanks to great efforts by both Gamma teams over the Xmas period and regular contributions from an American couple, we received a little over that for Januarys budget. This is the first time we have actually covered our budget totally with donations.

On average we are receiving just half of what we need with the remainder being made up by myself.

To sustain our work and to hopefully move forward this is not a tenable situation.

If you are looking in and have time , energy and ideas and would like to help a very worthwhile cause please consider joining our Fund Raising Family. Your “team” can be just one person or a group of friends. If you keep a record of your Fund raising activities and take some photos to we will give you space on our website where your efforts will be credited.

From jumble sales to home made fashion show, movie clubs to coffee mornings…..as the old adage goes,” every little helps” and with enough small fund raising teams around the world our target is not a huge mountain to climb.

If you are local to or visiting Chiang Mai and want to confirm what you see on our website via a personal visit please do get in touch.

We are dedicated to quality “family style” care with extensive efforts towards true development of each and every child’s potential, employing art, music, dance, character building work projects and are now moving forward with even more practical skills development, including basic electronics.

Please help us sustain our work, which is starting to show marked results. And not just to sustain but to develop and offer ”A Better Chance” to many more children in the future.

Khap Khun Mak, Chok Dee :)

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Jan 222012

Due to Annas need to bring forward travel plans for Australia, having secured herself a job, this was Anna and Toms last day with children.

And another full day it was.

Certainly the morning was busy with the usual work time slot, with more work being done to our “workshop”.

As there wasn’t really enough jobs to go round on this project, Anna took some of the girls to begin a new Mural on the rear wall of the outdoor shower block.

After work hour Tom got into more Patong and Anna helped Bpaa Zang and the girls in the kitchen.

Top star lunch. Nam pik phlaa with sweet and sour chicken and cabbage and eggplant on the side. Genuine Thai cuisine as tasty as any you’d get in the city restaurants.

In the after noon things were a little more chilled with the kids keeping themselves occupied with Patong and their bicycles and the adults taking some time to let our food go done and grab an afternoon nap.

Active Anna succumbed, finally, to the heat and took some well earned nap time in the garden.

We all said a big thanks to our visitors over dinner and wish them all the best for their new life in Australia. Hopefully “see you again” rather than goodbye?

Introducing Bpaa Zang

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Jan 202012

As some of you will already know we unfortunately lost House Mother Muay, on Boxing Day, after she decided to leave the job to spend more time with her own family. The stresses and strains of helping to care for 10 children can take their toll and we wish Muay all the best for the future. Whilst here she did a great job.

This has meant an extra workload for myself whilst waiting for new staff.

Thankfully, after a couple of non-starters I am pleased to introduce our new House Mother, Zangboon. Now known as Bpaa Zang. She has pitched into the job straight away since starting on Tuesday and all the signs are that we have yet another great member of staff. Floors are sparkling, children are getting lots of hugs and our stomachs are being treated to excellent quality Thai cuisine. Zang apparently had her own business in the past cooking Thai food to sell at local factories at lunch time.

Community Work

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Jan 182012

Yesterday was Anna and Toms 4th day with us and it turned out to be a very interesting one. After a phone call the day before, from Khruu Khem of Huay Sai School, 14 kms from our Foundation home, it was arranged that we would visit the school to help the children with English vocabulary.

It turned out that the school is getting various visits this week with a view to inspecting its standards. Yesterday they were visited by the Governor of Lamphun Province, within which Huay Sai is situated.

Our day began as usual with the school run, taking the four Mattayom Students to their school in Sarapee, picking up Anna and Tom on the way. From there we went to the vegetable market in Sarapee and got the weeks supplies.

Having dropped the veg back home we then headed off to Huay Sai , arriving a little after 9am.

Shortly after our arrival we were treated to some cultural performances laid on for the Governor, including Traditional Thai Dancing, Hula Hoop Dancing and a display of Muay Thai/stick fighting by the boys.

Then it was into Khruu Khems English classroom, which had been laid out to imitate a small market, ready for the children to go “shopping” using English language.

Anna, Tom and myself spent time helping the children practice their vocabulary, both with the shopping exercise and with a performance of ” Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.

We all had lots of fun and when it came to the children doing the exercise in front of the visiting inspectors they all did a great job.

So Much In One Day

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Jan 152012

Another full day with so much done. Thanks to help from Anna and Tom it wasn’t just productive and fun but also quite relaxing for me.

The day started off Anna and Tom arriving shortly after breakfast.

They came bearing gifts of some great card model kits, including Tower Bridge and Big Ben.

After a short period helping the kids get started on the models it was time for work hour. We are at the moment having a serious overhaul of our store room, previously treated more like a dumping ground.

We had already emptied the room, swept and cleaned and now the kids are getting to test their practical skills yet again, building new shelves from bamboo.

With Tai showing the most interest in practical exercises and the plan being to create an ordered workshop, he has once again taken charge and got to work designing the shelf units and passing on instruction for measuring out the bamboo needed.

Todays session finished, Anna and Tom then joined some May 2 , Jor and Nu in the kitchen to help prepare a very tasty sweet potato curry for lunch.

After lunch there was more model making before our 2 helpful Volunteers ran an hours English based around an introduction to their 2 home countries, Australia and England.

That finsished it was back to the kitchen to help prepare Salmon fish cakes and more curry for dinner.

With everything ready there was also time for a fun game of Patong .

Anna and Tom Join The Family

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Jan 152012

Its a popular time of year for Volunteers it seems as we have now been joined by Anna and Tom who will be helping out for 2 weeks.

Once again they have fitted in quickly with the children and having arrived on Friday evening have already had one busy day helping with the days trip out on Saturday for Childrens Day.

They have come armed with some great activity ideas and buckets of enthusiasm. We look forward to lots of fun during the next fortnight.

Childrens Day threatened to be a wash out with heavy rain first thing.

Thankfully this eneded at around 10.30am and , with Anna and Tom , we boarded the truck and headed first to the local celebrations at Chompoo.

It has to be said that we appeared to have missed the main fun and games but there was still a few things going on in the well organised village affair.

Gu managed to win himself a big money box and all the kids tucked in to the free food on offer.

From there we headed into Airport Plaza where everyone enjoyed watching a magic show. We actually decided that it was a tad noisey and also difficult for supervision of the whole group here and after the magic show we moved on to Central Plaza , Huay Kaeow where the children enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at the show and Playground set up in the centre of the Mall.

A lot of running around and as Anna and Tom can confirm , a tiring day for the adults, but the important thing was that the kids had a great time